The Ministry of Civil Aviation (MoCA) plans to connect more than 50 wildlife and tourism destinations in the next stage of the regional connectivity initiative Ude Desh ka Aam Naagrik (UDAN).
It has identified 54 new destinations for the next phase of the scheme. The fifth phase of the scheme — to be called UDAN 5.0. — will aim to add or revive air strips closer to wildlife sanctuaries, tourist destinations or spiritual places.
The government has prepared a list of potential airports. Most of these destinations already have either an underserved or unserved airstrip.
Usha Padhee, Additional Secretary, Ministry of Civil Aviation, said, "With UDAN 5.0. we are going from regional to remote connectivity. This will be a demand driven scheme."
"We will not decide the routes for airlines to bid for. Airlines know the network better. They will be allowed to select the routes they want to bid for. Of course, we have some priority areas included in the scheme, like in North East states and islands," she added.
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The list includes 10 airstrips, which are near a wildlife sanctuary like Ranthambore (Sawai Madhopur) and Bharatpur in Rajasthan, Bishnupur, also culture destination in West Bengal, Yavatmal in Maharashtra, Satna, Dhana and Mandla in Madhya Pradesh and Nagarjuna Sagar in Andhra Pradesh.
Airstrips near 29 tourist destinations, including Chamba, Sidhi, Panchmahri, Jogbani, Raichur, Hirakund and Kohima have been proposed to be developed as potential airports. Religious and spiritual destinations like Konark, Bihar Sharif, Hassan, Dessa and Abu Road will be included in bidding process of UDAN 5.0.
Madhya Pradesh and Bihar are likely to be the biggest beneficiaries of this round. Eleven airstrips from Madhya Pradesh and seven from Bihar are included in the list.
The airlines bidding under the scheme will be allowed to propose the routes. Airlines will have to go through a two-stage bidding process before the route is awarded. The draft of the scheme is ready and the bidding process is likely to commence in the next three months.
The UDAN scheme was started in October 2016 with the objective of providing air connectivity in tier II and tier III cities and to make flying affordable for common citizens.
Under this scheme, RCS was created, which funds the viability gap funding (VGF) requirements of the scheme through a levy on certain domestic flights. A total of 70 airstrips and 433 routes have been operationalised in the previous four phases of the scheme.
This report is by Rohan Singh, Principal Correspondent, CNBC Awaaz
(Edited by : Shoma Bhattacharjee)
First Published: Sept 7, 2022 9:15 PM IST
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